Latty-Walls-Fuller

Below is a message I wrote this morning (June 19, 2007) to a genealogy buddy on the east coast. I figured it might help someone else too, so I am posting it here. ******************************

It's been a while since we've communicated. I have something else really neat to share!!!! I now know who Charles and Jesse Fuller's parents were. I've had his mother in my files a very long time and didn't even realize it was her. I'll try to explain. It's long and drawn out so bear with me.

A long ago when Jay was a boy growing up in his grandparents' house, Marion Howell lived with them. Marion was kin to both Lum and Ellie Fuller Partain. It turns out that Mary Jane Howell, (the very same lady who said in her statement that Charles Fuller was her nephew), was Marion Howell's mother.

Since she was Charles' aunt, (and taking into consideration the other info Mary Jane gave about not knowing the Fuller side of the family), she would have to be his mother's sister. That means his mother and Mary Jane had to have the same maiden name.

When Marion Howell passed away, it was Jay's grandpa Lum who furnished the information for his death certificate. The death certificate states that Marion's mother's maiden name was WALLS.

On August 26, 1907, William Washington Fuller, (Yes, another one; a younger one. He was Charles and Jesse's cousin), at the age of 39, born April 11, 1868, son of Jesse Thomas Fuller and Sarah Ann Latty, made a claim for such share as may be due him, of the fund appropriated by the Act of Congress approved June 30, 1906, in accordance with the decrees of the Court of Claims of May 18, 1905 and May 28, 1906, in favor of the Eastern Cherokees. This application was made to the Special Commissioner of the Court of Claims in Washington D.C. I'm sure this was Guion Miller. Some of the pertinent things he says are: His mother's name before marriage to his father was Tittle. He says his father was Jesse Thomas Fuller and his mother was Sarah Ann Fuller (he states her maiden name was Latty). He says his Indian claim was from Frances Scott (Latty), his mother's grandmother. He states His grandparents on his father's side are Peirson Latty and Nancy Latty, and his grandparents on his mother's side are William Fuller and Elizabeth Fuller.

Realizing Elizabeth's maiden name had to be Walls, I started searching. I already had an Elizabeth Walls in my files as the daughter of Edward and Delilah but I had her married to John Gordon. Edward and Delilah Walls appear in the 1850 census with several of their children, to include Mary Jane and Irena, (who also made a statement for Sarah Jane saying she had known Charles Fuller all his life. She was Mary Jane's sister). They were still girls at home that year. Further censuses prove Elizabeth Gordon was also Edward and Delilah's daughter. Elizabeth was older, born about 1819, and had already married and left home by the 1850 census.

I put the hints together...... 1. Her name was Elizabeth, 2. she was a Walls, 3. her age was right to be William Fuller's wife and Charles and Jesse's mother, but I figured she couldn't the same person since she was married to John Gordon. I pondered on it for a while and then suddnely it hit me. She could be the same person!! John Gordon was her second husband. She was married to William Fuller first in a very short marriage and they had the two boys, Charles and Jesse, then William apparently died, (maybe from lung disease?) because shortly after that Elizabeth married John Gordon. The ages and the times and the dates are all consistent enough for this to be so.

Below I have cobbled together notes taken from several different places in my files. For that reason some of it may be repetitious. I changed these notes a tad in places and put them together here. That's why the whole thing is not very free flowing but rather disjointed. I hope the overall info, however, will help explain why I came to the conclusion that Elizabeth "Betsy" Walls, daughter of Edward and Delilah Walls, sister of Mary Jane and Irena Walls was also the wife of William Fuller and the mother of Charles and Jesse. I don't have absolute concrete PROOF but I have enough circumstantial evidence to convince me beyond a reasonable doubt!

The LDS genealogy website lists George W. Howell married to Mary J. Nox (their spelling. It probably should have been Knox), on June 12, 1869 in Benton County Arkansas. Husband was 54 at the time of the marriage and the wife was 32.

Both their ages at the time of this marriage indicates it was a second marriage for both. Mary Jane first married a Knox and then she married George Howell.

The 1900 US census, Crawford County Arkansas,Union Township, District 57 (Ancestry.Com census image # 15), lists Mary J. Howell as head of household, born April 1836, age 64 and Marion Howell, son, born August 1871, age 29, in Arkansas. Listed next door is Mary's daughter, Mary Frances with her husband Creed Bentley and their children, Delilah, Britton and George W. (Notice the girl, Delilah's name. It appears she was named after her Great Grandmother, Delilah Walls).

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Mallory Funeral Home records, in Sallisaw, Sequoyah County Oklahoma, have her listed as Mary WELLS. Below is the Mallory Funeral Home quote:

The LDS website (IGI individual record) also lists George Howell, death after 1888, spouse Mary Walls, marriage 1869 in Arkansas. When you click on Mary's name there, it gives her birth as about 1835, which corroborates her birth year as it is listed in the 1850 census, as Mary J. Walls, daughter of Edward and Delilah.

Mary Jane Walls Howell gave an affidavit on behalf of Sarah Jane Fuller (widow of Charles Edwin Fuller), in Sarah's petition for a civil war widow's pension. In her statement, Mary Jane said she had known Charles Fuller all his life since his infancy and that he was her nephew. She said she knew that Charles' only brother, Jesse T. Fuller had died of lung disease). She further stated that she didn't know whether any of his aunts or uncles on his father's side of the family ever had the disease because she didn't know them. (I believe she must have known some things about them. She probably meant she didn't know them well). She said that Charles inherited his lung disease from his grandmother Fuller and his father, William. In speaking of being his aunt though, since she didn't know much about his father's family, it is apparent she was speaking of, his mother's side; the Walls side. It is evident now that Mary Jane and Elizabeth "Betsy" Walls were sisters. Irena Walls Latty also gave an affidavit stating she had known Charles Fuller since his infancy. Irena was also their sister, Charles and Jesse's aunt.

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Charles Edwin Fuller (Jay's great great grandpa) was born in 1841 so it is likely Charles' parents, Elizabeth Walls and William Fuller were married about 1940. Their second son, Jesse Thomas Fuller was born in 1842. It appears that William Fuller died right about this time, (from lung disease? probably), because very shortly thereafter, about 1843, Elizabeth married John Gordon and their first child was born in 1844.